Jeffrey Goodman blogs about the films and albums that inspire him. And his experiences with his first feature-length film, starring Tom Sizemore and Sasha Alexander.

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Passing Fancy (1933)

The first time I am back to digging into Ozu's work chronologically since 6/12. There is some familiar thematic territory, specifically to I Was Born, But... and a young boy's struggle with the way others view his underachieving father. There are noticeable stylistic consistencies that he seemed to be moving more and more towards in his preceding films such as an increasing reliance on the tatami shot. Still not as prevalent yet are the long takes that Ozu would emphasize later in his career. And again, there is an allusion to Western culture as the young boy discusses honesty with his father by using the George Washington cherry tree story as his illustration.

Most interesting to me in this work is the humanism on display that we would end up associating as much as anything with Ozu. It will be interesting to see if this becomes an integral and inseparable part of every work from this point forward.